28 Meith 2011, 19:52
Ceann Comhairle Seán Barrett has criticised the use of telephone facilities in Leinster House to make calls to a commercial voting line.
“I condemn the use of a telephone in Leinster House for such purposes. The misuse of the resources provided to Members for their public duties for the aim of voting in a television competition is an outrageous abuse of facilities. I am calling for the money to be repaid in full immediately. I also will ensure that the details of this matter are addressed in full at the next meeting of the Committee on Procedures and Privileges.”
Background and rules to telephone usage in Leinster House
At the outset it is appropriate to confirm that legally Oireachtas Members are entitled by law to free telephone calls from Leinster House to carry out their duties as public representatives.
They are provided with telephone facilities to make these calls with connectivity for local, national, mobile, premium rate and international calls, and with voicemail facilities where required, at Leinster House only.
In view of their roles as parliamentarians and public representatives under the Constitution, historically calls made by Members are not logged for reasons of privacy and confidentiality.
Therefore, the Houses of the Oireachtas Service does not log calls from Members’ handsets and, in keeping with this policy, it has no way of categorically stating whether a Member is responsible for making or mandating particular calls or classes of calls.
The cost of all telephone calls made by Members from extensions in Members’ offices in the Leinster House complex is met by the Houses of the Oireachtas Service.
While Members’ calls are not logged, it is the practice that our telephone service providers will draw our attention, as a large client, to when there are significant departures from normal call patterns coming from the main Leinster House number. The 2007 case is the only time that a service provider reported a spike in calls of this nature and, having been reported, the calls were blocked within an hour as it was clear that they were to a commercial voting line and clearly were not related to any parliamentary activity.
Because it was established that the number in question was a number to vote for Michael Healy Rae, the Houses of the Oireachtas wrote to then Deputy Jackie Healy Rae making him aware of the circumstances of the calls and seeking his comments. No response was received. As the calls could not be attributed to any particular person, there was no basis to pursue the matter further and no further action could be taken.
The overall cost of telephone calls from the Houses of the Oireachtas is falling year on year due to a determination to drive down this particular overhead through a combination of key changes in our purchasing systems and falling tariffs. It should also be noted that premium rate accounts account for less that 1% of our call costs.
For further information please contact:
Mark Mulqueen
Head of Communications
Houses of the Oireachtas
Kildare Street
Dublin 2
Tel: 00 353 1 618 4077
Fax: 00 353 1 618 4118